The Healthy Coconut Diet
If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need anyone to tell you that being overweight is not only bad for your self-esteem, but is downright hazardous to your health. Pre-mature death as well as many diseases are linked to obesity, including:
Diabetes
Heart disease
Cancer
Gallstones
If you’re like most overweight people, you have been trying to lose weight for a long, long time, but have not been successful. Or perhaps you go on diets and do lose weight, only to gain it back again and then some – the “yo-yo” diet syndrome, that many experts say is more dangerous than simply being overweight. Many people become desperate, and use drugs that can be damaging to your health in other ways. Well, we are here to tell you that losing weight and then maintaining that weight in a healthy way can be easier than you think! And if you do it naturally, like we are suggesting, you will most likely end up far healthier at the same time, with more energy and vitality than you’ve had in a long time.
So, why is this diet called the “Healthy Coconut Diet?” That is somewhat of a misnomer since coconut oil and coconut products are just one part of this diet, albeit an important one. We do suggest consuming coconut oil and other coconut products on this diet, because, along with some other things we will discuss shortly, many people have reported that consuming coconut oil helps them to lose weight and/or to maintain a proper weight. Perhaps you’ve read in the media somewhere like in Women’s World Magazine about the miracles of coconut oil and coconut products for losing weight. Coconut oil is not a panacea, however. Our diet is far more than that. It’s a healthy way of eating for life that may have some surprises for you as you read about it.
Benefits of Coconut Oil
Amongst the other benefits we will discuss in more detail later, coconut oil can help you to:
Coconut Oil and Weight Loss
Many people have reported that consuming Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) helps them to lose weight. They often see increased energy levels and fewer cravings for carbohydrates and sweets. It’s easier for many people to eat less when consuming 2 - 6 Tablespoons of coconut oil per day, because the fats provide a feeling of satiety or fullness after eating that is not generally experienced when eating a low-fat meal. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why low-fat diet don’t work in the long-term.
Other Benefits of Coconut Oil
Besides boosting your metabolism, the lauric acid in coconut oil is proven to be anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal, so it helps to boost your immune system and to keep you from getting sick. The lauric acid helps your body to fight bacterial infections, including strep, viral infections, including HIV and herpes, parasites like giardia and candida fungal infections.
Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit, M.D., after a 1999-2000 study of HIV patients, concluded that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and that it “can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients.”
Low-Fat Diets Don’t Work
Are you still caught up in the low-fat mantra of the past couple decades? Do you think you have to cut back on the amount of fat you eat if you are trying to lose weight? These ideas are still so prevalent in our media and in the low-fat products you see everywhere, in the grocery stores and in restaurants, that it’s no wonder you may still believe this. In fact, even many doctors still believe this. However, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Controli, in 1999-2000, an estimated 64% of adults in the United States were either obese or overweight. That’s almost 2/3 of the adult population! 1/3 of our children are now overweight as well, and these figures are increasing. In the past 30 years, the number of overweight children has doubled. In just the past decade, the number of obese people in the U.S. has gone up 2 ½ times. ii Fifty years ago, only a small percentage of the population had problems with their weight. Now it’s an epidemic! All this has happened while we cut back from 40% to around 32% fat as a percentage of our diet.
Low-fat diets not only don’t work, but they’re not healthy, not natural, and they tend to promote weight gain! Research confirms this statement. The famous Framingham Study that started in 1948 is still going on, and it shows that the more saturated fat, the more calories, and the more cholesterol a person ate, the lower their serum cholesterol! The results also show that the more fat they ate, the less they weighed! We are eating less fat as a nation, but are gaining weight. There are a number of reasons for this. One is that since fat gives foods much of their flavor, when manufacturers cut out the fat, they add sugar, MSG and other chemicals to the food to enhance the taste. These can all have adverse effects on both our weight and our health.
Saturated Fats Are Necessary for Good Health
Many of us, doctors and laypeople alike, were taught that red meat and fat, and especially saturated fats, are to be avoided. We still hear that they cause all sorts of problems, including high cholesterol, heart disease and weight gain. However, if you carefully study the research, you will see that it shows the opposite to be true. Saturated fat is a vital nutrient and is necessary for good health. In order for your body to properly use fat-soluble vitamins, you need to have the fat in your foods. Calcium, too, needs fats for proper absorption. That’s another reason why we suggest using full-fat dairy products and putting butter and cream on your calcium-rich leafy green and other vegetables and eating salad with oil-based dressings. If you eat this way, you will increase your absorption of the vitamins and minerals contained in those salads and other vegetables, which will not only help you be healthier, but may help you to lose weight. It seems that many people overeat because the foods they are consuming are not providing them with the nutrients that they need.
While we Americans have been lowering the amount of fat in our diets, especially saturated fats like animal meats, butter, lard, coconut oil and full-fat dairy products, not only have obesity rates skyrocketed, like previously discussed, but heart disease rates have also increased. A wealth of research points to vegetable oils, sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup), and refined grains (“bad carbs”) as a major cause of obesity, and to trans-fats, and vegetable oils and shortening as a major cause of heart disease.
FACT: By 1950, butter consumption had dropped from 18 lbs per person per year to just over 10.
FACT: Heart disease caused probably no more than 10% of US deaths prior to the 1920’s. By the 1950’s it had risen to 30% or more.
According to Dr. Ron Rosedale,iii when you eat lots of carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates like sugar and white flour products, your body converts them to sugar and then burns that sugar instead of burning fat. Saturated fats act as a carrier for the “fat soluble” vitamins A, D, E and K. When the fat is removed from foods in our diet, many of these vitamins are also removed, and our absorption of these vitamins also goes way down.
Saturated fats protect the liver from alcohol, drugs and other toxins.iv Saturated fats also support the immune system, which helps keep you from getting sick.v Saturated fats are needed for correct bone development and in order to prevent osteoporosis. A high level of fat in the diet needs to be saturated in order for the body to properly utilize calcium.vi This means that a low-fat diet with plenty of calcium and/or calcium supplements is not necessarily going to prevent osteoporosis.
Saturated fatty acids are necessary for proper functioning of all our cell membranes. They give our cells the firmness necessary to maintain structural integrity. All your cells and organs, especially the brain, need saturated fats in order to function properly.
Traditional Fats and Blood Sugar
Many people have reported being better able to regulate their blood sugar with regular consumption of the traditional fats like dairy fats, including butter, eggs, beef and coconut oil. Trans-fats can interfere with insulin receptors, so stay away from them if you want to keep your blood sugar levels normal. Vitamin D, also found in saturated fats like butter, lard and cod liver oil, helps your body to adequately use insulin. Regulating your blood sugar is not only important for preventing diabetes, but for all of us if we want to be healthy and of normal weight.
i National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2000.
ii Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
iii Ron Rosedale, M.D., “Insulin and It’s Metobolic Effects,” p. 6. www.mercola.com
iv A.A. Nanji, et al., Gastroenterology 109/2 (August 1995): 547-554.
v J.J. Kabara, “The Parmacological Effects of Lipids,” Champain, IL: The American Oil Chemists Society, 1978, pp 1-14.
vi Watkins, B.A. and Seifert, M.F. 1996 “Food Lipids and Bone Health.”
The Healthy Coconut Diet
If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need anyone to tell you that being overweight is not only bad for your self-esteem, but is downright hazardous to your health. Pre-mature death as well as many diseases are linked to obesity, including:
Diabetes
Heart disease
Cancer
Gallstones
If you’re like most overweight people, you have been trying to lose weight for a long, long time, but have not been successful. Or perhaps you go on diets and do lose weight, only to gain it back again and then some – the “yo-yo” diet syndrome, that many experts say is more dangerous than simply being overweight. Many people become desperate, and use drugs that can be damaging to your health in other ways. Well, we are here to tell you that losing weight and then maintaining that weight in a healthy way can be easier than you think! And if you do it naturally, like we are suggesting, you will most likely end up far healthier at the same time, with more energy and vitality than you’ve had in a long time.
So, why is this diet called the “Healthy Coconut Diet?” That is somewhat of a misnomer since coconut oil and coconut products are just one part of this diet, albeit an important one. We do suggest consuming coconut oil and other coconut products on this diet, because, along with some other things we will discuss shortly, many people have reported that consuming coconut oil helps them to lose weight and/or to maintain a proper weight. Perhaps you’ve read in the media somewhere like in Women’s World Magazine about the miracles of coconut oil and coconut products for losing weight. Coconut oil is not a panacea, however. Our diet is far more than that. It’s a healthy way of eating for life that may have some surprises for you as you read about it.
Benefits of Coconut Oil
Amongst the other benefits we will discuss in more detail later, coconut oil can help you to:
Coconut Oil and Weight Loss
Many people have reported that consuming Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) helps them to lose weight. They often see increased energy levels and fewer cravings for carbohydrates and sweets. It’s easier for many people to eat less when consuming 2 - 6 Tablespoons of coconut oil per day, because the fats provide a feeling of satiety or fullness after eating that is not generally experienced when eating a low-fat meal. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why low-fat diet don’t work in the long-term.
Other Benefits of Coconut Oil
Besides boosting your metabolism, the lauric acid in coconut oil is proven to be anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal, so it helps to boost your immune system and to keep you from getting sick. The lauric acid helps your body to fight bacterial infections, including strep, viral infections, including HIV and herpes, parasites like giardia and candida fungal infections.
Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit, M.D., after a 1999-2000 study of HIV patients, concluded that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and that it “can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients.”
Low-Fat Diets Don’t Work
Are you still caught up in the low-fat mantra of the past couple decades? Do you think you have to cut back on the amount of fat you eat if you are trying to lose weight? These ideas are still so prevalent in our media and in the low-fat products you see everywhere, in the grocery stores and in restaurants, that it’s no wonder you may still believe this. In fact, even many doctors still believe this. However, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Controli, in 1999-2000, an estimated 64% of adults in the United States were either obese or overweight. That’s almost 2/3 of the adult population! 1/3 of our children are now overweight as well, and these figures are increasing. In the past 30 years, the number of overweight children has doubled. In just the past decade, the number of obese people in the U.S. has gone up 2 ½ times. ii Fifty years ago, only a small percentage of the population had problems with their weight. Now it’s an epidemic! All this has happened while we cut back from 40% to around 32% fat as a percentage of our diet.
Low-fat diets not only don’t work, but they’re not healthy, not natural, and they tend to promote weight gain! Research confirms this statement. The famous Framingham Study that started in 1948 is still going on, and it shows that the more saturated fat, the more calories, and the more cholesterol a person ate, the lower their serum cholesterol! The results also show that the more fat they ate, the less they weighed! We are eating less fat as a nation, but are gaining weight. There are a number of reasons for this. One is that since fat gives foods much of their flavor, when manufacturers cut out the fat, they add sugar, MSG and other chemicals to the food to enhance the taste. These can all have adverse effects on both our weight and our health.
Saturated Fats Are Necessary for Good Health
Many of us, doctors and laypeople alike, were taught that red meat and fat, and especially saturated fats, are to be avoided. We still hear that they cause all sorts of problems, including high cholesterol, heart disease and weight gain. However, if you carefully study the research, you will see that it shows the opposite to be true. Saturated fat is a vital nutrient and is necessary for good health. In order for your body to properly use fat-soluble vitamins, you need to have the fat in your foods. Calcium, too, needs fats for proper absorption. That’s another reason why we suggest using full-fat dairy products and putting butter and cream on your calcium-rich leafy green and other vegetables and eating salad with oil-based dressings. If you eat this way, you will increase your absorption of the vitamins and minerals contained in those salads and other vegetables, which will not only help you be healthier, but may help you to lose weight. It seems that many people overeat because the foods they are consuming are not providing them with the nutrients that they need.
While we Americans have been lowering the amount of fat in our diets, especially saturated fats like animal meats, butter, lard, coconut oil and full-fat dairy products, not only have obesity rates skyrocketed, like previously discussed, but heart disease rates have also increased. A wealth of research points to vegetable oils, sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup), and refined grains (“bad carbs”) as a major cause of obesity, and to trans-fats, and vegetable oils and shortening as a major cause of heart disease.
FACT: By 1950, butter consumption had dropped from 18 lbs per person per year to just over 10.
FACT: Heart disease caused probably no more than 10% of US deaths prior to the 1920’s. By the 1950’s it had risen to 30% or more.
According to Dr. Ron Rosedale,iii when you eat lots of carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates like sugar and white flour products, your body converts them to sugar and then burns that sugar instead of burning fat. Saturated fats act as a carrier for the “fat soluble” vitamins A, D, E and K. When the fat is removed from foods in our diet, many of these vitamins are also removed, and our absorption of these vitamins also goes way down.
Saturated fats protect the liver from alcohol, drugs and other toxins.iv Saturated fats also support the immune system, which helps keep you from getting sick.v Saturated fats are needed for correct bone development and in order to prevent osteoporosis. A high level of fat in the diet needs to be saturated in order for the body to properly utilize calcium.vi This means that a low-fat diet with plenty of calcium and/or calcium supplements is not necessarily going to prevent osteoporosis.
Saturated fatty acids are necessary for proper functioning of all our cell membranes. They give our cells the firmness necessary to maintain structural integrity. All your cells and organs, especially the brain, need saturated fats in order to function properly.
Traditional Fats and Blood Sugar
Many people have reported being better able to regulate their blood sugar with regular consumption of the traditional fats like dairy fats, including butter, eggs, beef and coconut oil. Trans-fats can interfere with insulin receptors, so stay away from them if you want to keep your blood sugar levels normal. Vitamin D, also found in saturated fats like butter, lard and cod liver oil, helps your body to adequately use insulin. Regulating your blood sugar is not only important for preventing diabetes, but for all of us if we want to be healthy and of normal weight.
i National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2000.
ii Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
iii Ron Rosedale, M.D., “Insulin and It’s Metobolic Effects,” p. 6. www.mercola.com
iv A.A. Nanji, et al., Gastroenterology 109/2 (August 1995): 547-554.
v J.J. Kabara, “The Parmacological Effects of Lipids,” Champain, IL: The American Oil Chemists Society, 1978, pp 1-14.
vi Watkins, B.A. and Seifert, M.F. 1996 “Food Lipids and Bone Health.”
For more information on Virgin Coconut Oil, visit http://www.nourishingplanet.com
Trans-fatty acids are still found in many products because hydrogenated oils prolong shelf life and make food smoother, softer or crisper. Trans-fatty acids are found in margarine, deep-fried foods such as donuts and French fries. They are in most processed foods – packaged cookies, cakes and salad dressings, as well as many frozen dinners. They are also found in most processed oils, like soybean and canola oil. Unfortunately, they are often found in olive oil as well, since many olive oils are not 100% olive oil.
